these people received no pay,
but were satisfied with what plunder they got after a battle; and
accordingly, this principle stimulating them, they were always
foremost on any contest, dispute, or battle. They begin the
campaign almost in a state of nudity, and seldom return to their
homes without abundance of apparel, arms, horses, camels, and
money; but this property quickly disappears, and these people are
soon again reduced to their wonted misery and nudity, and become
124 impatient for another campaign of plunder. When the present sultan,
Soliman, came from Mequinas, in the year of the plague (1799), a
division of his army passed near Mogodor, and the encampments of
the Ait Amor, or Amorites occupied the whole of the country from
the river to the Commerce Garden, a distance of three miles. It is
very probable that some other of the tribes bordering on Palestine,
may have emigrated in remote times, and may have taken their abode
on the Atlas mountains. There are above twenty (kabyls) tribes
of[117] Berebbers occupying the mountains of Atlas, as Ait-Girwan,
Zian, Ait-Ziltan, Ait-Amor, Ait-Ebeko, Ait-Kitiwa, Ait-Attar,
Ait-Amaran, and many more whose names I do not now recollect. We
travelled seven hours through the Amorite country, and pitched our
tents in the north part of the plains of Msharrah Rummellah. Fire
being lit, the Moors sat round to warm themselves, and confidently
animadverted on the prosperity that would necessarily attend our
journey, after having met with such a hospitable and favoured
reception at the renowned sanctuary before mentioned.

[Footnote 115: In reply to those learned sceptics who have
studied books; but not men, and the manners of different
countries; who believe nothing but what they have seen; and who
say that Pharaoh never came so far west; I reply, that our
knowledge of African history is extremely imperfect. In fact,
we now know as certainties, various articles of which no record
is to be found in any ancient writer; for the affairs of
Africa, which, of late, have so deservedly excited the
attention of the learned, were as little known to the ancients
as they are to the moderns; insomuch that not a word is to be
found in any ancient record or history extant, of those curiou